Dank dungeons, gothic ruins and rainswept mountain peaks are fine for
inducing the creeps. But when it comes to high-grade macabre, there's
no place like home. Take the London house furnished by British Author
Ian McEwan, 29, in this tight, unsettling first novel. The place stands
almost deserted amid urban rubble, one of the few survivors of a
highway plan that went nowhere. In it live Julie, Jack, Sue and Tom, a
reasonably normal array of siblings ranging in age from 17 to six, and
their mother, who is dying. The...